THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 241 



season. However, it is well known that they invariably try 

 to make their way back to their original spawning ground, 

 just as rooks return to their last year's nests. Trout are 

 hardly in condition for angling before the first of March, 

 and then only if the weather is mild ; if not, they are retarded 

 in condition, sometimes as late as April. A good indication 

 when trout may be angled for is noted by " Old Isaac 

 Walton," and it is as true to-day as it was when he wrote 

 it " When the hawthorn begins to show the green bud." 

 Until the weather gets genial and the sun gives out some 

 heat there is a delay in the insect life hatching, the trout 

 very often having to depend for food on the flies rising 

 from the larva state to the surface. One of the first insects 

 that makes its appearance in quantity is the March brown. 

 It rises in considerable numbers from the bottom of the river 

 in March and April, and as it is a big luscious fly the trout 

 feed on it greedily and soon become lusty and strong. 

 There are perhaps more trout killed over the country with 

 the March brown artificial fly than with any other. Some 

 anglers never mount a cast without having one attached, and 

 in mountain streams the trout will rise at this fly in September 

 as fast as they did in March. Then in succession as food 

 come various duns and spinners, the May fly, the stone fly, 

 and the cow dung fly, which on windy days is blown into 

 the river ; next the w'ater clocks and the sedge flies make 

 their appearance on the water, and, later on, the oak and 

 house flies. The various land flies are offered to the trout 

 from the many bushes and grasses which overhang and 

 grow alongside the river, and these, with w T orms. molluscs, 

 and water beetles, make up their forage till spawning time 

 comes again. No fish are so susceptible to atmospheric 

 changes as the trout. The day may be bright and clear 



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